"Fritz is a good friend, and for me he's been a mentor," Lind said. "He taught me an awful lot. We fished together. So when something like this happens, it's a major jolt."

Shurmur followed Holmgren to Seattle after he was hired last January.

Shurmur was considered a critical part of the Green Bay Packers' success under Holmgren, which culminated in back-to-back Super Bowl appearances in 1997 and 1998.

"I'll miss him as a football coach certainly, but he was a really good friend," Holmgren said. "He was a little bit of a mentor to me. He'll be a part of this thing as long as he can and as long as he wants to be."

Shurmur's life-threatening illness has created a void on a team that was once filled to the rim with his spirit.

For them all, it is a sad and immeasurable vacancy.

Holmgren has known about Shurmur's illness for several weeks but he still had trouble swallowing his emotions while talking about it Monday.

It was the first time the team has convened in full since it was learned that Shurmur would have to take a leave to receive treatments for a serious illness.

And it made the Monday mini-camp workout the first practice that Holmgren has directed since 1994 that Shurmur wasn't there to act as his defensive alter ego.

"I noticed it today, quite honestly," Holmgren said of Shurmur's absence. "That raspy voice, and me having to yell at him to get back (away from the action)."

Shurmur was already considered a defensive genius when Holmgren brought him to the Packers five seasons ago. And their relationship, with mutual professional respect as its foundation, grew from there.

Lind has coached with Shurmur for five years. He also has shared with him many quiet hours in the earnest pursuit of fish.

"When something like this happens, it's a major jolt," Lind said, adding that he discovered a reliable mental signpost while leading defensive drills: "I found myself thinking ... what would Fritz do."

Defensive line coach Larry Brooks has the added perspective of having played for Shurmur. He said the defensive guru brought an incredible appetite for work to his job.

"He's always been a blue-collar guy who really enjoyed the work itself," Brooks said of Shurmur, who grew up the son of a chemical plant worker in the industrial suburbs of Detroit. "If any accolades ever came along, that was fine, but he sure never lost any sleep over it."

Brooks doubts that any man who has never been a head coach in the NFL had ever earned so much respect for his knowledge.

Shurmur was said to have been close to landing head coaching jobs in St. Louis in 1986 and Cleveland in '89 and '91, but, as Brooks said, he "never lost any sleep about it."

"This great game has been awfully good to me and my family," Shurmur said while coaching Green Bay during the playoffs this year. "It doesn't owe me anything."

Perhaps that makes it a little easier for the Seahawks, particularly the staff members who know him the best, to pick up their hearts, mend the broken places and try to act as if football was important.

"Something you learn at a very young age, if you're involved in football, is that you get knocked down and then you've got to get up," Holmgren said. "This is a real tough thing, but he would be the first one to say, get up and let's get going.

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CHENEY (AP)- Despite 14 years in the NFL, Mike Holmgren said Saturday that his first training camp with the Seattle Seahawks is a big learning experience. He's learning how to juggle triple responsibilities as vice president of football operations, general manager and head ... [Read More...]

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